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Braised Leg of Mutton

Braised leg of mutton cooked slowly with bacon, onions, carrots, herbs, and gravy, optionally served with white beans.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and beans match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,443 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Braised Leg of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the mutton

  1. Remove the bone from the leg of mutton up to the first joint.

  2. Roll bacon strips in mixed spice and minced savory herbs.

  3. Lard the inside of the boned leg.

  4. Optionally, fill the cavity with highly seasoned forcemeat.

  5. Sew up the meat.

Braise

  1. Place the sewn meat in a braising pan with bacon slices underneath and on top.

  2. Add onions, carrots, bay leaves, savory herbs, and bones or bits of mutton or veal.

  3. Pour in ¾ pint of gravy.

  4. Stew the meat gently for 4 to 5 hours.

  5. Place the braising pan in a 350°F (175°C) oven.

Glaze and serve

  1. Lift the meat out of the pan.

  2. Strain the gravy.

  3. Reduce the gravy quickly to a glaze.

  4. Brush the glaze over the meat or pour it over the mutton.

  5. Optionally, serve with boiled white beans or a mild ragout of garlic or shallots underneath.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Carrot + beanstop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,443 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Onion + beanstop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,242 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Mutton + carrottop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,878 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Mutton + oniontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,531 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Leg of mutton
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender and moist through long, gentle stewing.
Bacon
Its fat bastes the meat during braising, adding moisture and savory flavor.
Onions
Break down during braising to sweeten and add depth to the gravy.
Carrots
Release natural sugars during braising, adding sweetness and body to the gravy.
Gravy
Provides the braising liquid that keeps the meat moist and is reduced into a glaze.

The step that matters

Stew the meat gently for 4 to 5 hours. Low, slow heat breaks down the tough connective tissue in mutton into gelatin, making it tender. Rapid boiling would toughen the muscle fibers and dry the meat.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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